Like many, I learned about Paper.li because I was mentioned in a newsletter. As the days went on, I received Tweeted alerts that my articles had featured in several more. It was a tremendous ego boost, as it seemed to prove that my writing was topical and incisive enough for online editors to wish to feature it. I was only partially right. The curating process is automatic. Someone somewhere had set up their Paper.li to capture the subjects that I was covering. But is that necessarily a bad thing?
With some people rejoicing and others crying spam, it is time to explore the function of Paper.li as a SEO tool.
What is Paper.li?
Paper.li was launched by SmallRivers in April 2010, but is only recently picking up traction. It is a curating service, taking links posted on Twitter, Facebook or in RSS streams, before turning them into a newsletter. Those who jumped onto the bandwagon too early found that the net was cast too wide. Content of uncertain or downright dodgy quality nestled alongside the articles that editors wanted included. As a result, SmallRivers have spent the past few months refining the way in which stories are found.
In July 2011, Paper.li announced that one billion articles had been linked from its newsletters. The news was crowed with some jubilation from its blog:
Publishers, you reached an amazing milestone yesterday! You featured the billionth article onto the pages of your topic specific newspapers, creating 1 billion more opportunities for favorite content to be (re) discovered, read and shared by like minded audiences worldwide. That's something to celebrate!
Its developers recently added Android, iPhones and other Smartphone apps, which extend their platform even further.
What Does Paper.li Offer for Bloggers, Webmasters and Writers?
It can take just seconds to set up a Paper.li newsletter, though applying careful SEO to its customisable feed streams boosts that time into minutes. The basic model plunders your Twitter stream for any links posted by yourself or those you follow. At a set time, these links are transformed into the traditional newsletter format.
The headlines are links to each article's source, with just a couple of teaser lines beneath. The featured story includes an image. Each item is automatically categorised, allowing readers to click tabs leading to their favoured subjects. Media, like YouTube videos, and images may also be lifted and inserted in their own sections. This nicely breaks up the 'wall of text' appearance of the front page.
A couple of truly personal touches are built into the framework. An 'editor's note' box allows the creator to write a message, which is displayed in a prominent position. Additionally, their Twitter feed is embedded further down the page.
The real worth for writers and promoters is in the customisation of the basic package. With a few tweaks, this newsletter will call upon only those articles which the editor chooses. The result is a single URL, which can be used to direct more traffic towards your work.
How Can Paper.li be Customised for Better SEO?
As with any SEO, trial and error to create the best fit is essential. However, some head starts can be obtained by carefully selecting the information feeds. Each newsletter's settings contains a tab entitled 'content'. The editor can choose up to five different streams from which Paper.li will find its articles.
There are currently seven options for populating these streams:
- Single Twitter User. This will produce linked articles only from the named Twitter timeline. Pros: More control over the content produced, as long as the editor is the owner of the Tweeted account. Cons: Not as many articles, plus repetitiveness in that the account's followers will have already seen it all.
- Me & The People I Follow. This will produce linked articles not only from the editor's Twitter timeline but from those published by everyone they follow too. Pros: A healthy and wide selection of stories, leading to a vibrant newsletter. Cons: A lack of quality control means that some content might be inappropriate for your readership. Also your own links are not prioritised, so may not feature at all.
- Twitter List. Similar to the section above, but with a little more control. A Twitter list allows for only selected timelines to be included. The pros and cons are the same as above, but both are slightly lessened.
- Twitter #tag, Keywords on Twitter and Keywords on Facebook. These are three different streams, but I have lumped them together as they have an identical function. This is the option for those wishing to produce newsletters on specific topics, regardless of authorship. Pros: Wide sweep of articles leading to a vibrant newsletter, plus the ability to monitor trends and the latest news in niche fields. Cons: Not the model for SEO, as there is no guarantee of which articles will be included.
- RSS Feed. This is arguably the most value stream for SEO purposes and it is also the most recently added. It will only produce articles from those RSS channels which the editor has asked it to. Pros: The entire newsletter can consist only of one individual's articles, drawn from a variety of blogs, websites etc. Cons: This puts pressure upon that individual to write large volumes of articles each week.
Customisation also includes setting the frequency of newsletter updates and altering the appearance of the page.
Paper.li already has millions of users, but only time will tell whether it's a flash in the pan or set to become an essential SEO tool.
Sources:
- Paper.li.
- Paper.li blog: One Billion Articles Featured by Paper.li Publishers. (July 19th, 2011.)
- Techcrunch: Paper.li Lets You Read Twitter In Daily Newspaper Form, Raises More Funding. (June 30th, 2010.)
- Techcrunch: Paper.li Raises $2.1 Million For Social News Curation, Hits 2 Million Users. (January 11th, 2011.)
Jo Harrington - Jo has a BA (Hons) in History and Philosophy and a MA in History. She has a book published on the history of Wicca.
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